Toilet lid lock



Nov. 11, 1969 D, w, KIMBER 3,477,070

TOILET LID LOCK Filed May 27, 1968 JZ/VENTOQ.

.D/AWE W E/MBER IQTTOENESJ United States Patent-O 3,477,070 TOILET LIDLOCK Diane W. Kimber, 3420 Beverly Drive, San Bernardino, Calif. 92405Filed May 27, 1968, Ser. No. 732,438 Int. Cl. A47k 13/24 US. Cl. 4253Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A simple flexible, plastic straphaving pressure adhesive discs at its opposite ends for securing saidends respectively to the lid and bowl of a toilet fixture to deny accessto the toilet bowl to irresponsible infants. One of the buttons has areadily detachable connection with the strap for freeing the lid topermit authorized use of the toilet bowl.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention Numerous devices havebeen developed and patented for the purpose of denying access to atoilet bowl by a person unauthorized to use the same. Most of thesedevices have been relatively complex and thus expensive to manufactureand bothersome to use. Three such patents are No. 2,404,124 issued July16, 1946 and No. 3,048,854 issued Aug. 14, 1962, and No. 3,056,972issued Oct. 9, 1962.

Description of the prior art Patent No. 2,404,124 discloses a web strapadjustable in length :and joined at the middle by a complex buckle, saidstrap terminating at its ends in wire hooks which hook over the rim ofthe toilet bowl from the inside to anchor the ends of the strap whichare then brought together over the top of the lid and buckled together.Thi device is provided mainly for use in locking the lids on toilets inresidences open for inspection to prevent their being used by personsinspecting the property. This device is quite operative for locking atoilet lid but it is too complex to be conveniently unlocked by a personauthorized to use the toilet.

The device shown in Patent No. 3,048,854 also straps down the lid and isanchored by a metal clamp applied to the rim of the bowl. It is subjectto the same criticism. The device shown in Patent No. 3,056,972 is alsoclamped to the rim of the toilet bowl and is junky in appearance anddifficult to keep clean.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention aims to provide a meansfor effectively locking the lid of a toilet against unauthorized use ofthe latter by an irresponsible infant and yet leave the bowl quicklyavailable for access thereto by any authorized person who is familiarwith the mechanism of the lid lock, and of course permit the easyre-application of the lock to the lid after using the toilet.

Another object of the invention is to provide a toilet lid lock no partof which will be located within the toilet bowl and thus not subject tothe necessity of the same being frequently cleaned.

A further object is to provide a toilet lid lock which is simple instructure and inexpensive to produce, and a lock which is not unsightlywhen applied to a toilet.

The present invention includes a flexible, plastic strap in the generalorder of about /2" wide, having a round stiff sheet plastic button atone end thereof, one face of said button being coated with a pressureadhesive which is normally covered with a neutral overlay, the oppositeend of said strap having one or more holes which are slit at one side toreceive a button provided on a stiff sheet plastic disc the bottom ofwhich is coated with a pressure 3,477,070 Patented Nov. 11, 1969 ICCadhesive and which is normally covered with a neutral paper overlay. Toapply the invention, the paper overlays are removed from the pressureadhesive on both discs at the opposite ends of the strap and one ofthese discs is applied to the toilet lid and the other disc is appliedto the outside of the toilet bowl with the strap stretched taut betweensaid discs. This locks the lid closed, at least as far as the ability ofan irresponsible infant is concerned in gaining access thereto, until aperson knowing how to operate the invention pulls the perforated end ofthe strap from off of the button of the disc providing the latter whichfrees the lid for use of the toilet. To restore the lid lock followingthe use of the toilet, it is required merely to reapply to the buttonthat one of the perforations in the strap which had been removed fromthis.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURE 1 is a plan view of aconventional toilet with the seat and lid thereof closed and showing thepreferred embodiment of the present invention applied to the toilet soas to lock the lid in closed position.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged detail fragmentary sectional view taken on line22 of FIGURE 1 and illustrating the manner in which the inventionsecures the lid in closed position. The broken lines in this view showhow the invention is released to unlock the lid when this is desired.

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of the strap of the invention and showsin perspective the discs permanently secured to one end of the strapwith the pressure adhesive coating of one of these discs facingupwardly.

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged sectional view taken on the line 44 of FIGURE 3and illustrating said permanently secured discs of the invention withthe pressure adhesive coated surface thereof turned downwardly.

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of the button disc of the invention withthe pressure adhesive coated surface thereof exposed upwardly.

FIGURE 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of FIG- URE 5 with thepressure adhesive thereof turned downwardly.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The invention is used inconnection with a toilet fixture 9 including a bowl 10 having a hinge 11secured to a rear portion 12 thereof, and a seat 13 and lid 14 which areindependently coaxially pivotally mounted on said bowl by said hinge.

The invention comprises a lid lock 15 which includes a flexible plasticstrap 16 which may be in the neighborhood of 12" long and /2" wide, thisstrap having permanently secured at one end thereof a pair of discs 17and 18 which are preferably made of plastic and heat sealed to oppositefaces of that end portion of the strap 16. The bottom of disc 18 isprovided with a coating of pressure adhesive 19 which in turn isnormally covered with a neutral paper overlay 20.

The opposite end portion of strap 16 is preferably provided with aplurality of holes 21 having short slits 22 formed from their innerends.

Look 15 also includes a button base 23 having a collar button type ofbutton 24 provided on the upper face thereof at the end of a neck 25which connects said button with said base. The bottom surface of thebase 23 is covered with a coating of pressure adhesive 26 which isnormally covered with a neutral overlay 27.

OPERATION The lock 15 is provided for the purpose of holding the lid 14in closed position as shown in FIGURES 1 and 2 of the drawings, for thepurpose of preventing use of the toilet by unauthorized persons andparticularly irresponsible infants. To accomplish this end, the button24 is inserted through the endmost of the holes 21 in the strap 16 withthe adhesive layer 26 of the button 24 on the same side of the strap asthe adhesive layer 19 of the disc 18 at the opposite end of the strap.The neutral overlays 20 and 27 are now stripped from the pressureadhesive layers and the disc 18 is then applied to the top of the lid 14as shown in FIGURE 1 with the lid in closed position after which thestrap 16 is pulled taut downwardly over the extending edge of the seat13 and until the pressure adhesive coating 26 of the button base 23comes into pressural contact with an outwardly exposed area on thetoilet bowl as shown in FIGURE 2. The opposite ends of the strap 16 thussecurely hold the upper end to the lid 14 and the lower end to the bowl10 and with the strap 16 taut. This application of the lock locks thelid 14 against being opened without the application of very substantialforce thereto, such as would be sufficient to rupture the strap 16. Thisapplication of the lock 15 to the lid 14 and the bowl 10 etfectivelydenies access to the toilet by an irresponsible infant.

When an adult familiar with the mode of operation of the lock 15 wishesto use the toilet, he merely pulls the lower end of the strap 16outwardly to withdraw button 24 from the hole 21 in which it was locatedand thus free the strap 16 from being held down by said button. The lid14 is thus free to be swung open during the use of the toilet. When itis desired to close the lid and resecure the lock 15, the lower end ofthe strap is merely pulled downwardly until the hole 21 previouslyreceiving the button 24, is slipped over this button, thus replacing thestrap in locking position as shown in FIGURE 2.

The manner in which neutral overlays and 27 are stripped from the layersof pressure adhesive provided in the invention is illustrated in brokenlines 30 in FIGURES 4 and 6. Broken lines 31 in FIGURE 2 illustrate thestrap 16 when it is free from attachment to button 24.

I claim:

1. In toilet apparatus having a bowl, a seat mounted on the bowl andgenerallly overlying the rim of the bowl, and a lid pivotally mounted onthe bowl so as to swing between a generally horizontal closed positionand a generally vertical open position, the lid having a generally flattop surface bounded by an edge portion of the lid which generallyoverlies the seat, and the bowl having a generally flat, outwardlyfacing surface which extends downwardly from the rim of the bowl, thecombination with said toilet apparatus of toilet lid locking apparatuswhich comprises a first attachment member having a substantially flatsurface adhesively bonded to said lid surface, a second attachmentmember having a substantially flat surface adhesively bonded to saidbowl surface, and a flexible strap connected proximate its respectiveends to said first and second attachment members, said strap extendingfrom said first attachment member in a direction generally parallel tosaid lid surface, then bending down over said edge portion of the lidand over the edge of the seat, and then extending downwardly past therim of the bowl to said second attachment member in a directiongenerally parallel to said bowl surface, whereby said strap willrestrain the toilet lid against the unauthorized opening thereof, therestraining force of said strap upon said attachment members beingapplied in directions generally parallel to the planes of the respectiveadhesive bond joints between said attachment member surfaces and saidlid and bowl surfaces so that the stresses on the adhesive bond jointsare principally shear stresses, the connection of said strap to one ofsaid attachment members being releasable for authorized use of thetoilet.

2. The combination of claim 1, wherein said releasable connection ofsaid strap to one of said attachment members comprises button meansprojecting upwardly from said one attachment member and aperture meansin the strap through which said button means is releasably engageable.

3. The combination of claim 2, wherein said aperture means comprises aplurality of holes longitudinally spaced in said strap for selectiveapplication of said button means so that slack in said strap maybe takenup.

4. The combination of claim 1, wherein said attachment members areadhesively bonded to said lid and bowl surfaces by the provision ofpressure adhesive material on said attachment member surfaces.

5. The combination of claim 1, wherein said attachment members compriseplastic discs.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,558,578 6/1951 Palmeri 4-2532,692,394 10/1954 Paulus 4-234 3,116,527 1/1964 Springer 248l XR3,395,408 8/1968 Weber et al. 4-253 LAVERNE D. GEIGER, Primary ExaminerHENRY K. ARTIS, Assistant Examiner

